not heard it all but the song they played on 1xtra was very like one dance. drake seems to wish he was in london in 2008. hes probably made epic marcus nasty and live fm playlists on his ipod. for me at least, its like uk funky, but without the fun or energy, not helped, or caused maybe, by drake's imperious whine.

Passionfruit, 4422, Can't Have Everything and Ice Melts are all good. Not sure about the rest but him continuing to move away from his "classic" sad underwater sound with 40 is a welcome development imo.

Drake is best when he doesn't feel constrained by his own conception of what an "album" should be. He spent years hyping Views, only to have it tank critically. Although it performed incredibly well commercially, and cemented his status as probably the biggest pop star in the world, he seemed to know that it was far from his best work, which is why he was so quick to announce More Life with four new tracks (only six months after Views). He thinks making an album should be a Serious endeavor, which is why he becomes firmly himself on Take Care, Nothing Was the Same, and Views: petty, whiny, brokenhearted, indecisive, all with production courtesy of 40. This worked on Take Care because there were more well-placed fun moments, excitement over his burgeoning fame; it's a well-sequenced album. This started to wear thin on Nothing Was the Same, which in hindsight has comparatively few standouts. With similarly few boisterous tracks, an over-saturation of his shtick, and an 80-minute run time, Views is insufferable. It's no coincidence that the most critically acclaimed tracks are the dancehall ones: "One Dance," "Controlla," and "Too Good."

This just shows that Drake is strongest when he's cosplaying as someone else, and he only feels comfortable doing that when the stakes are lowered (look at career highlight If You're Reading This It's Too Late, a retail full-length he dubbed a mixtape where he pretended he was a battle rapper). Mopey Drake also doesn't show up as frequently on one-off tracks like "0 to 100," "5am in Toronto," "Dreams Money Can Buy," "Hotline Bling," "Draft Day," and plenty of others.

More Life is too long, and though I've only listened to it a couple times all the way through, it don't think it's as good as IYRTITL. But it's a hell of a lot better than Views, and I think that's because Drake called it a playlist, lowering the amount of pressure he put on himself.